1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to garments and more particularly to a garment for restrainingly securing a baby in a high chair or the like, with the garment being provided with a detachable bib.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A particular problem relating to child safety is the use of high chairs of the type commonly used for feeding a baby. When a baby is ready for solid food, the baby is seated in the high chair to facilitate such feeding and this is always of concern in that babies at that young age are very active and virtually unable to sit still. Even though most high chairs are provided with a tray which restrains a baby to a limited extent, constant surveillance is the only way to positively prevent the baby from falling out of the high chair or otherwise hurting himself or herself. In the beginning when the baby is being fed by one of the parents, or other adult, the surveillance is pretty constant. But, even during this early stage of baby feeding the adult must interrupt surveillance from time to time and many babies are hurt during those periods of interrupted surveillance.
When the baby begins to learn how to feed himself or herself, surveillance usually decreases as the learning process progresses, but the dangers associated with high chairs remains.
As a result of these well known dangers, several baby restraining garments have been devised, however, none of these garments has, to the best of my knowledge, achieved any significant degree of commercial success.
Examples of such prior art baby restraining garments are fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,077,244 issued to M. R. LeRoy on Apr. 13, 1937, 2,170,703, issued to C. F. Waxman et al on Aug. 22, 1939, and 2,448,076 issued to R. I. Bradley on Aug. 31, 1948.
It is believed that the lack of appreciable commercial success of these prior art garments is due, at least in part, to the difficulty in using such garments. More specifically, the LeRoy garment has four depending straps which are wound around the legs of the high chair below the seat and tied together in bows. The Waxman et al garment has a total of seven straps which are individually connected to different locations on the high chair. The Bradley garment requires that the baby be laced into the garment and the laces connected to the high chair below the seat thereof.
As well known, feeding a baby can, and often is, a messy operation when becomes more messy when the baby begins feeding himself or herself. All of the prior art garments referred to above suggest that the garments will serve as bibs in addition to their restraining function. Due to the messy nature of a baby feeding operation, these prior art garments must be washed very often, sometimes as often as after each meal. This, obviously can become a very tiresome and time consuming chore.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved baby restraining garment with detachable bib which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.